Edited by Bev Mortimer – Port Elizabeth, 1 April – Residents of the Eastern Cape may soon have a cutting-edge solution to their vervet monkey woes, thanks to a proposed smartphone app dubbed “Monkey Shield.”
Announced yesterday by a local tech team in Gqeberha, called Breaking Tech, the ‘Monkey Shield’ app aims to curb the growing menace of vervet monkeys raiding gardens, smashing windows, and terrorising homes across the province. Vervet monkeys have long plagued Eastern Cape towns, from East London to St Francis Bay and further south, forcing their way into homes, attacking small dogs, and leaving a trail of broken dishes, glasses and stolen snacks and fruit.
Developed by the tech team, working with a team of South African engineers, plus behavioural and wildlife scientists, Monkey Shield™ combines cutting-edge technology with primate psychology to create an impenetrable barrier around a home and garden.
For particularly persistent monkeys, the system plays a pre-recorded voice of an alpha male vervet, triggering an instinctive retreat, or warning hisses of a snake, according to one of the techies making the app. The app connects to a small, solar-powered speaker device that homeowners can mount near windows or gardens.
According to project leader Nwabisa Mbeki, “The app can detect monkey chatter through a phone’s microphone, then triggers the speaker to emit a high-frequency sound – inaudible to humans and pets but unbearable to vervets. “It’s like a sonic ‘no trespassing’ sign.”
The app also features a crowd-sourced map, where users report monkey sightings to warn neighbours of approaching vervets, triggering an instinctive retreat.
Early beta testers in Port Alfred and East London report a 96% reduction in monkey-related incidents, with one homeowner declaring. “It’s like they’ve been programmed to stay away!”
The development team is currently working on the Monkey Shield Mobile App, which will allow homeowners to customise deterrent levels, review “monkey intrusion” footage, and even trigger emergency counter measures remotely.
In tests near Gqeberha, the system reportedly reduced monkey break-ins by 70%, with one vervet troop fleeing a garden mid-raid after the sound kicked in. “They dropped my tomatoes and bolted,” laughed a local tester Audrey Summers, 38. “Even my Jack Russell wasn’t bothered.”
“Monkeys are clever and aggressive,” Mbeki states, “but this tech is smarter.”
Breaking Tech plans to roll out “Monkey Shield” as a downloadable app, with the speaker device sold separately for around R300.
An aide from the Breaking Tech, Thandi Uloliwe-Nkomo (meaning “Happy April Fool’s Day” in Xhosa), said they’re seeking quotations from high-tech app developers in the region. “We’re aiming to have it ready for purchase by June 30, 2025, just in time for the winter chaos season.”
